Bringing strategy to life

The World Squash Federation is making the presentation of its life to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with the aim of persuading it that squash deserves to be an Olympic sport. International brand and communications consultancy, UffindellWest, has supported this by creating a new brandmark to spearhead the worldwide campaign for including squash in the 2016 Olympics.

Competition for inclusion from other sports, such as baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby and softball, is very high. The benefits of making squash an Olympic sport include making the sport accessible to a new generation of players as well as generating new revenue for the sport.

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Atisreal, one of Europe’s leading providers of commercial real estate services, is rebranding to BNP Paribas Real Estate. UffindellWest has supported Atisreal in the UK on the application of the new brand and creation of a trade press advertising campaign and advised on the employee and customer communication strategy.

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Debbie Spence has just joined us as Strategic Planner, providing strategic and creative insight to enable clients to meet their business and marketing objectives. Debbie has worked with some impressive clients, from the BBC, to Tesco, Arts Council England, Discovery, RAC and Universal Music, to name just a few. So we believe she’ll fit right in here.

Lou, one of our senior designers in London, is just back after a trip Down Under, all a-buzz about the new A380 Airbus, which she caught from Bangkok. Apparently the aircraft designers and Qantas had clearly thought hard about the needs of the passengers…

Lou liked how the windows of the emergency exits contained magnifying glass so you could see the changing details of the landscape below. Seatback TV screens were almost twice the size of normal, and stations throughout the cabin offered a constant supply of refreshments.

“You really got the idea that the airline had put themselves in the long haul economy passenger’s shoes and tried hard to make the journey better wherever they could. All the little touches really added up to create an experience that I would choose to have again,” says Lou.

Even 30,000ft above the earth you don’t need rocket science to get the customer experience right.

International brand and communications consultancy, UffindellWest, has successfully secured a place on the Marketing and Brand Strategy framework for the government’s Central of Information (COI).

COI thoroughly evaluated 600 applications and reviewed around 3000 CVs and 5000 case studies during the review. UffindellWest is 1 of 15 companies that can be appointed to handle B2B strategy development projects.

The Marketing and Brand Strategy and Internal Communication, Engagement and Change agency frameworks are worth approximately £5 million per year replacing the Marketing and Brand Strategy Consultancy Framework, which was last reviewed in 2005.

COI say the best agencies have been appointed to help solve some of the UK’s most complex communications challenges and deliver significant returns on investment for their clients.

28 April 2008, London

Symposium Events brings you its 4th Annual Engagement Summit at a time when rising redundancies, employee pessimism and negative working climates are all working against productivity.

Our managing director, Sholto, will be presenting on ‘Engaging Employees in a New Era – The Need for Brand Congruity’ at the Summit.

If you are interested in hearing more about this event, then please email kaye@uffindellwest.com

Right now, and until the 27th February, esteemed political, current affairs and business mag, The Economist, is holding an online debate: ‘This house believes that Brand America will regain its shine’. Contributors are airing their views on whether President Obama can undo the damage made to the country’s reputation in recent years.

One contributor sees America’s brand essence as change. Another sees President Obama as a brand manager’s dream ‘young, smart, black, smooth…’ Today, branding and its references are the stuff of everyday language, and America as a brand is an easy concept to grasp – one that triggers a strong emotional reaction in almost everyone.

In actual fact, countries and cities are increasingly marketing themselves as brands to take advantage of the sustainable competitive advantage this brings. Here at UffindellWest we’ve developed and implemented brand strategies for parts of cities through to entire countries.

If you’d like to find out more, just get in touch with us. And let’s create a place brand that gets people talking. For all the right reasons.

It’s amazing what a bit of snow can do.

Here in London we’re experiencing some of the heaviest snow for over a decade. It may be paralysing the transport systems but there is an upside… As well as enabling we adults to rediscover our inner child via the medium of snowball fights and snowman building, this ‘extreme weather event’ means that we’re actually talking to each other! Neighbours who normally pass each other without a word or an ounce of eye contact are exchanging pleasantries, smiles, and helpful (usually) nuggets of information about the local transport situation.

There’s a moral in this story for us all.

Once the snow has melted, the fleeting excitement’s waned and the buses are back on the roads, we’ll still find ourselves in the midst of an extreme economic event i.e. a recession. And it’s vital for brands to keep talking - to existing as well as potential new customers, not to mention employees, to maintain confidence and morale.

Are you doing all you can to communicate the right messages via the right channels to the right audiences? If you’re in any doubt, and you think your competitors might have the upper hand, then you should be talking to us.

And when we’re done, let’s chuck a snowball or two.

Here’s our take on the winning words, values, attributes and actions that the successful businesses of 2009 will be espousing… and the ones to avoid.

In the couple of millennia that Santa’s been around he’s become a master of the brand identity refresh. Join us on the UW sleigh as we take a tour of the inspiration for ‘Brand Santa’.  

First stop, ancient Rome. Santa started life with the pagan gods, borrowing his good humour from Saturnalia, a giant who brought food, wine, revelry – and gifts – to all once a year in mid December. From another god, Odin, Santa borrowed his wanderlust and ostentatious personal style. Odin would sweep across the land during the winter sporting a robe lined with fur and holly. 

Now to late third century Asia Minor, and the birth of Saint Nicholas. Here Santa collected his generosity of spirit – as well as his name. Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus to Dutch-speakers) inherited his father’s fortune and promptly gave it away to the poor. As a bishop he spent much of his time begging money for the needy and giving gifts to poor children. Thought to have been imprisoned for a while for being a Christian, Saint Nicholas died on 6 December.

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